# Why did this happen?

Every change to a conversation says who did it, when, what Rookery read, and how to change it next time. Open Why? on the line, the sticker or the ⋯ menu.

Getting started · Updated October 17, 2026 · https://userookery.com/help/why-did-this-happen/

A conversation was marked done, reopened, filed or handed to someone, and you weren't the one who did it. Rookery tells you why, in one plain sentence.

## Ask why

There are four places to ask:

- **On the thread's history.** Each line that changed something, like "Rookery filed this as a notice and marked it done", ends in **Why?**. Click it, or tab to it and press `?`.
- **On a sticker in your inbox.** Click **They replied**, **Nothing to answer**, **Draft ready** or any other sticker on a row to see why it's there.
- **On a reply's due time.** In a conversation, **Reply due by 3:40 pm** ends in **Why?**: which priority it has and who set it, the inbox's [reply target](https://userookery.com/help/reply-targets/) for it, and the business hours it counts in.
- **In the ⋯ menu.** Open a conversation and choose **⋯ → Why is this here?**. It explains three things: why the conversation is in this inbox, who has it, and why it's open, waiting, snoozed or Done.

## What it tells you

Each answer is one sentence, then up to three short facts:

- **Who:** a teammate by name (or you), or Rookery, and when.
- **What it read:** when Rookery decided, the signs it went on. For example: "It's an automated email its own domain signed: a List-Unsubscribe header, a no-reply sender and nothing asked of you."
- **Next time:** how to make it go differently.

For example:

- **You marked it done.** Yes, it was you, at 3:04 pm. **Reopen** is right there.
- **Rookery reopened it because Dana wrote again.** New mail from a person reopens a Done conversation, unless you set a rule for their mail.
- **Rookery kept it Done: 5 of Parcel Express's last 6 conversations here were marked done within a day, with no reply.** Reopen it, and Rookery stops filing their mail on its own.
- **Rookery filed it in Reading as a newsletter from Tallyboard: it's a company's marketing email, not a person writing to you.** A product update or a promotion with no unsubscribe link still reads as a newsletter when it's built like one: links through a click tracker, an open-tracking pixel, "View in browser". Not a newsletter? Treat the sender as a person on their page.
- **Rookery filed it as a notice from Card Co and marked it done when it read the email again.** An older reading had left it open in your turn; reading the mail again with what Rookery knows now filed it. It only does that when nobody reopened or answered it.
- **Rookery filed it in Reading as a newsletter from Sky Deals: it's a list's issue, not a person writing to you.** The facts say why, like "list mail that names no booking, order or bill of yours": a deal with travel or money words in it, and no booking, order or account number.
- **Rookery's drafts wait for Sam's yes because the inbox picked Sam to approve them.** You can change that in Settings → Inboxes.

## Fix it from there

When there's something to undo or correct, the answer offers it:

- **Reopen** or **Mark done**, **Unsnooze**, or **Undo** an assignment.
- **Not a notice:** also on **Today → Review**, beside everything Rookery filed today. Rookery filed a person's email as a machine's notice or receipt. Say so, and the email is a person's again, the conversation opens if the filing closed it, and Rookery treats that sender's mail as a person's from now on, in this inbox (or, for a team inbox, across the team's inboxes).
- **Stop filing their mail:** someone said this sender's mail needs no reply. This turns that off, so their next email waits for a person.
- **Their mail needs no reply:** the opposite, for a machine's email that reopened a Done conversation.

## Where the reasons come from

Rookery keeps a short note of why at the moment it decides: which rule applied and which signs it read, like "a no-reply sender". It never keeps the email's words for this, and it never makes up a reason afterwards. A change from before Rookery kept reasons says so: "Rookery did this before it kept reasons, so it can't say more."

An answer only uses this conversation and its own inbox, so it never mentions mail you can't see.

## Good to know

- Rookery's three jobs (sorting, writing and documents) all show as **Rookery** here. An app your team connected shows by its own name.
- Developers get the same reasons on each event from the API, as `why` with codes and a sentence. See the [API reference](https://userookery.com/developers/reference/).
- More about what Rookery does on its own: [What Rookery does for you](https://userookery.com/help/meet-the-helpers/) and [Mail from services finds its own place](https://userookery.com/help/mail-from-services/).